Books November 2018

Party of one

A review of Provocations: Collected Essays by Camille Paglia

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Camille Paglia calls herself a Democratic libertarian (more about that anon), but she might be more properly called a public encyclopedia, judging by the table of contents in her new book, Provocations: Popular Culture; Film; Sex, Gender, Women; Literature; Art; Education; Politics; and Religion. One category is missing: Science. But even that subject receives some attention in her skeptical view of climate change—which is occurring, she admits, but for reasons that nature alone truly understands. Climate change has been politicized, she argues, and made into an argument that obscures a deeper truth: we cannot control nature and do not yet fully comprehend its ways or what we can do about natural forces. Here religion plays a vital role in her thinking. She is a declared atheist, but she advocates the study of the great religions for their symbolic explorations of mysteries that we...